End of 'Day Three'

Today has been the toughest so far. Nothing drastic - just an unpleasant hollow feeling and a few episodes of feeling highly agitated.

My books arrived today. Allen Carr's 'The Little Book of Quitting Smoking' is great - small enough for a jacket pocket or handbag and it contains the most powerful passages from his book in short, punchy paragraphs - perfect to fortify your willpower in a moment of weakness.

I went for a very long beach walk with the dog and felt much better afterwards. This evening, I found myself getting very twitchy and tense so I got the yoga mat out and spent an hour doing exercises on the living room floor. I can understand why people over-eat when they quit smoking - it's easy to mistake these hollow-feeling pangs for hunger.

I'm pleased there has not been the internal battle of wills that I've experienced on previous quit attempts - half of me wanting to continue the good work and the other half telling me to grab the car keys and head to the nearest petrol station for a packet of cigarettes. Actually, there was a sense of satisfaction that my body was reacting to the absence of nicotine and this time, there was no doubt in my mind that I could ride it out.

I'm in the middle of drawing a wall chart right now (I'm a very visual person) which is just a bar chart covering 90 days and the money saved each day in each block. I've been buying two packets of cigarettes a day at £10.40 each. Over 8

90 days, I can save £1,872...I might as well have sat every night and burnt twenty pound notes...it would have been better for my health if I had.

So - my target is a new car with my not-smoking money (well, not new - a pre-loved car but an upgrade on my current set of wheels.)

I can breathe easier already - my lungs feel larger and I noticed that my shampoo smelt of strawberries today!